Pride in Disability
July is Disability Pride Month! In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed on July 26, 1990, which is the reason we celebrate in July. If you’ve never celebrated before, and especially if you’re newly disabled, it might not seem immediately evident why we celebrate disability pride month. The longer I’m disabled, the more I see that deserves our collective recognition! So here are four of the things that make me proudest to be disabled.
1. Creative problem solving
Disabled people are constantly solving problems. When the world isn’t built for you, you get really good at figuring out how to creatively meet your needs. Have you ever been invited to an inaccessible event and done the mental math to figure out how you can still participate? Or come up with a system with care workers and/or loved ones to be able to meet your needs and keep your agency? Or mapped out your energy down to the most minute choices to be able to get through your day? That kind of creativity is a skill that you’ve built over the time you’ve been disabled.
Not that a skill has to have multiple applications to be useful, but have you ever run into a challenge with a group of disabled people? The creativity in the ideas for how to move forward are so beautiful. There’s a commitment to not leaving anyone behind and helping everyone get their needs met that is such a joy to be around and a gift to the world.
2. Interdependence
Speaking of not leaving folks behind, disabled people have beautiful, interdependent relationships that are worth celebrating. Interdependence is the idea that as one person you are both reliant on other people and others rely on you for success. The common narrative around disability is that disabled people are dependent, but that is not true. Disabled people are often able to clearly articulate both what they need and what they can bring to community, recognizing that although those things won’t look the same, they are both valuable.
The commitment to holding the bigger picture of community in getting our own needs met and supporting others to get their needs met takes many forms. It can look like mutual aid, sharing knowledge and medical supplies, ensuring that spaces and creating events that are accessible to all community members, to name a few. We need more of the politic and commitment it takes to acknowledge that our individual actions are both impacted by and impact those around us in this world, and disabled people build it.
3. Connection to our bodyminds
For as much as we talk about bodies in our current world, the size they are, how they look and what they can do, collectively we aren’t as connected to our embodied experiences. Collectively, we are often asked to leave how we are feeling behind in order to be able to meet the demands of living in a capitalist world. Although it often comes from increased pain or challenge, disabled people are deeply connected to their bodyminds. Don’t get me wrong, disabled people can also ignore our bodyminds with the best of them, but the exploration of sensations and symptoms that it takes to make sense of a disabled bodymind also brings a unique connection.
This curiosity and ability to dive inward and ask questions about our embodied experiences is something to celebrate!
4. Creating space for both grief and joy
The pervasive narrative around disability is that it is only something to be sad about. And there is grief here. Grief for alternate realities that aren’t marred by pain, lack of access or physical barriers. Grief for relationships, spaces and experiences that disability has changed. But there is also SO much joy. Disabled people are beautifully adept at holding both grief and joy in the same space, without letting the grief suck us into oblivion or the joy turn to toxic positivity.
It takes work to create joy amidst great pain, and this discipline of endurance is something that disabled people have had no option but to build. For me, this looks like getting a little treat when I have a hard medical appointment, letting the people in my community show up with nourishing meals when I’m not doing well or even sending another disabled person a meme from my sick bed. It’s usually in these small moments that I’m aware of both grief and joy the most.
What makes you proud to be disabled?
I would LOVE to hear what makes you proud. In a world that treats disability as something to be feared, pitied or disgusted (this link is an academic paper, I am in research mode and want to cite my sources!!), celebrating pride is an act of resistance and love. If it feels like these points of pride aren’t accessible to you right now, stay tuned for some ways to build disability pride into your life!
